exercising to your body type

[gatsby]

hi all,
there was a thread started in another forum about working out to your body type, hourglass, pear, ruler and cone. now i understand that if you're big in one area you may want to work out another area a little more to balance out your physique but i thought that would just be a matter of aethetics and not necessarily that you couldn't lose fat working out another way. but this programme goes a little further than this i think.
has anyone heard about it and if so what do you think?
i'm an hourglass and my sis is pear but we do the same workouts since we workout together. is this a good idea? she does more crosstrainer than i since i use the treadmill and bike too.
btw i told her she should do other cardio machines too but she just wants to do the crosstrainer since it burns the most calories. is this ok or should she mix it up a bit more. and if so why?
thanks
gen

[nelie]

Gen,
I think it goes along with the idea of women gaining big muscles as far as them not exercising as hard in a certain area, because they may be afraid to make that area bigger. Since we want to work out all our muscles as best we can so that they can burn fat, which of course comes off from wherever it wants. If someone is already fit and has a low body fat, then maybe they would want to think more about parts of their body that they want to emphasize.

The only possible problem I see for only doing one type of cardio exercise is perhaps your body getting used to it eventually. I think I had that problem when I used to only do step aerobics. I'm a pear and I try to workout every muscle group as hard as I can and I've been losing inches basically everywhere, although most of the inches have been coming off of my big belly which makes me happy

[Jennifer 3FC]

Leslie Sansone says that you need to keep your body guessing for exercise, because your body naturally becomes more efficient. Shake up the routine to stay a step ahead of your body and burn maximum calories/fat. She does this throughout the same routine, though, and not just by different days or weeks.

[srmb60]

I understand the little I've read about body types and diets and exercise plans to mean it all has something to do with metabolism. That pear shapes have different nutritional needs ... use calories in a different way ... maybe have different cardiac load than say a ruler.
There's also the business of being either meso, endo or ecto morph ... ethnic origin ... and so on.
Can it get any more confusing?
Probably all of it has some impact on your over-all fitness levels. It may just be another 'gadget' to help you 'personalize' your plan.

[funniegrrl]

Meso-, endo-, and ectomorph are descriptive terms. The predict how well your body will respond to fat-burning and muscle-building efforts overall. There are no (proven) specific strategies for each of these body types.

[goeatanapple]

It's all very confusing indeed!!

All I know is that I want all my muscles to work hard and I don't care what they look like, **** I wouldn't mind being overtly muscular ... which is a good thing because I think I build muscle a little more quickly than normal - even though I am about 40-50 pounds overweight, I can see my calf/thigh muscles, the muscles in my arms, and even my abs ... and I'm not going to complain if they all get bigger my little calorie burners, I love 'em!